SAO, Bleach, Blue Exorcist Crossover: Hell's Forest Online
by EmiEmi96
Summary: Three stories from three different universes all meet up in one; fighting for their lives in a disastrous game of death. The game which will decide their fates... Who will survive? Who will die? Can they all escape before they're trapped... in a forest from hell? CHARACTER DEATH WARNING
1. Introduction

**Well, this is my second crossover – and probably the best one in my opinion. I hope you like it as it has three different animes combined into one. (In order of most significant) Sword Art Online, Bleach and Blue Exorcist. I try to make my chapters as long as I can and I will post a new chapter every 14 days. I know it's a while and should be a week, but I have many projects to complete on FF, not to mentions exams in real life and more planning to do.**

**There's only one pairing in this: Kirito x Asuna (Sword Art Online), but I was thinking about Uryu x Orihime (Bleach). However, I decided not to do the Bleach pairing because that one can put people off.**

**Don't be afraid to read, review, favourite and follow! All types of reviews are gladly accepted Enjoy!**

* * *

"Kirito, behind you!" Asuna yelled as she sliced up another vile goblin. Her words alerting her boyfriend as he leapt up in the air, black wings shooting out of his back before he dropped onto the floor and lunged at the enemy - which was about to strike him down – with his heavy, onyx sword.

"Nice one," Leafa complimented as she started to mumble a few words straight after. The words whizzed around her in a whirlpool before an enormous blast of flames erupted from her palm, incinerating her opponent. The monster screamed as it melted to ashes; dying as it gave a yelp of agony.

"Same goes for you, Suguha," Kirito said as he started to walk to the last monster of which was trembling in fear of the unstoppable three. The three of whose power was enough to slay one hundred dragons in a punch. The three of which weren't afraid of anything coming their way.

"Hey, Kirito, I told you not to call me by my real name in here!" She ranted as she placed a hand on her hip, watching her brother finish of the last one.

Asuna just stood back and laughed, swiping a strand of her enchantingly beautiful blue hair out of her face. It seemed to sparkle in the dim light like her hopeful, blue eyes. She observed as her boyfriend, Kirito (or known as Kazuto Kirigaya in the real world), held his sword high above the quivering monster, prepared to obtain a vast amount of experience points for beating this seemingly endless dungeon in the world of Alfheim Online – the land of the fairies.

* * *

"Hey, Klein and Agil, what's up?" Kirito waved as he walked over to sit down on one of the stools in the shop his darker-skinned friend, Agil, owned. Following the black-haired boy came his adoptive-sister, Suguha, along with Asuna. The two girls also waved as they came in, a cheerful beam on their faces as they came to sit down.

"It's going good, man," Agil commented, smiling as the boy entered.

"Hey, Kirito, long time no see!" Klein greeted happily as he motioned Kirito to the seat next to him. Raising his fist, he tapped it against the Spriggan's fist before he spoke up again. "Did ya' here about the new VRMMORPG?"

Once again, he turned to face Klein, but cocked his head as he gazed into the older man's gentle, brown eyes. Kirito had a bewildered expression on his face as he replied with, "no, what is it?"

"Hell's Forest Online," Asuna mentioned before anyone else could say anything. She placed her hand on the black-haired boy's head, ruffling his hair as she continued with, "I would have thought that you would have known, Kirito."

The aforementioned Spriggan laughed awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his head, leaning far backwards to meet her gentle, shining blue eyes. "Well, what it's about then?" He pondered.

"There's three races: Demon, Werewolf and Vampire," his adoptive-sister and cousin, Suguha commented.

"That's right," Asuna agreed. She smiled at the fact that he was the only one who had no idea of this new, amazing game. The game which was about to be released in one month. "It's got one thousand floors inside and they're all extremely hard. I've heard that the beta testers couldn't even make it passed the third floor!"

"Yeah, each floor has different towns, but the first floor has four towns. They're the main ones. There's North Town, South Town, West Town and East Town. Different players start in different areas."

"Me and Suguha agreed that we were going to buy it as soon as it comes out, it's compatible with the NerveGear too."

"Well that's a relief. Anyway, Asuna, Suguha, Klein and Agil, I have to go now; too much homework from school," Kirito said as he glanced to all of his mentioned friends before swiping the air which brought down the menu. After the menu had loaded, he waved as he clicked the logout button – sending him back to the real world.

Kazuto Kirigaya sighed as he laid on his bed in the darkness of the room. It was ten at night and he was exhausted. Completing dungeon after dungeon in a virtual world really takes a lot out of you. '_Another VRMMOPRG? It sounds great, but I don't want to take the risk of it being like SAO again,_' he thought to himself, staring up at the ceiling. His hands were behind his head, lying on them before he got up and strolled over towards his desk. A few hours ago, he had started his homework, but stopped when he decided to go play ALO with Asuna. He only expected it to be two to four dungeons, but time flew by and he lost track of it.

Once again, he sighed. Sitting down at the desk as he gazed at the incomplete writing on the piece of paper, studying it as he tried to remember what he was going to write. A moment passed by as he picked up his pen. The teenager started to write indefinitely, a determined look plastered upon his face.

* * *

"Hey, look at that!" Orihime Inoue pointed out as she ran over towards a large window of a game shop. Her long, orange hair flowed wonderfully as she ran over to it, the said hair whipping in the whistling wind.

"What is it, Orihime?" Ichigo asked as he, Rukia, Uryu and Chad strolled over towards where she had dashed off. Considering her easily entertained personality, none of them would be surprised if it was a puppy or something like that.

She motioned for them to come over, even though they already were, the mentioned orange-haired girl turned her attention back towards the object of which she was looking at. "An advertisement," Uryu dead-panned.

"No, Uryu, it's a special advertisement," Rukia said sarcastically. The raven-haired female Soul Reaper suppressed the need to sigh as well as fought off the temptation of slamming her palm onto her forehead.

"It's the new VRMMORPG!" Orihime half-yelled excitedly. "Are you guys going to get it when it comes out in a month?" She questioned, her brown eyes sparkling from the light of the silvery moon. The moon which shone a majestic light upon the group.

"Probably," Chad said, gazing into her eyes.

"No chance," Ichigo commented, shaking his head as he attempted not to look in her eyes. If he did, then he would be put under her spell. Her spell of which she will get what she wanted from him. It was an incredibly hard temptation, but he managed to combat it with glancing from his feet, to the group – except to the Inoue girl.

"I'm with Ichigo on this one," the Quincy archer agreed with the substitute. "I'm not interested in it," he continued, shaking his head as he crossed his arms. The Quincy's glasses glimmered with suspense from the rays of the moon. Though that didn't matter as he had closed his eyes for a brief moment.

"After thinking it over, I think Uryu and you should get it, Ichigo. You can have a break from your duties."

"Why not you, Rukia?!"

"Because my duties never end, unlike yours."

"Why you-"

"Stop it!" Orihime interrupted, stopping the argument between the small Soul Reaper and the taller substitute. She gained their attention, both of them looking into her glistening, brown eyes.

'_Oh no,_' Ichigo thought as he glanced into her eyes, his amber orbs being locked in with her sympathetic ones. '_Not that look,_' he continued as his eyes continued to gaze, though his forehead was being pushing against the smaller Soul Reaper's in a war of dominance.

He let a restrained sigh escape his lips before smiling at her, turning his attention to her. He nodded acceptingly. "Alright. I'll get it. Only if I'm not the only one." He gestured towards everyone else.

"No complaints from me."

"That's because you're easy-going, Chad."

"Unlike you, Uryu."

"Ichigo, you better watch your mouth-"

"Not again!" Orihime and Rukia shouted simultaneously. This time, the Quincy and the orange-haired substitute Soul Reaper were glaring daggers into each other's eyes. The usually-calm archer had lost his cool and resorted to arguing back with the stubborn teenager. As they heard the harsh words from the two females, they snapped out of it, glancing back over their way.

"Well, that was easy," Rukia commented. "Anyway, we should be getting back; it's getting late now."

"Yeah, sure," was heard from the group before they all split up, making their way home.

* * *

**One month later...**

"Hey, Rin," a voice spoke out, coming through the dorm door. "I got you and me something; the store owner gave it to me for free because I exorcised a demon for him."

"Cool," Rin replied as he half-listened to his brother. In reality, he was focussed on what was important at this moment. The T.V. He had to catch up on the programs he missed due to the fact that he was busy exorcising demons and fighting them off.

"Rin," his brother said, annoyed as he just basically got ignored by his own brother. He gazed into his older brother's uninterested, blue eyes, trying to get his attention. "Don't you have homework you should be doing?"

"I don't know, do I?" He questioned, glancing back and forth between his twin brother and the T.V. The half-demon debating whether he should care or not about it. Deciding the latter, he moved lazily from his lying position on the sofa and moved to the other end of it. He did this only so he could see what was happening.

"Don't be so ignorant!" His brown-haired brother yelled, switching off the box with moving pictures. At this, Rin stood up, facing his younger twin. The mentioned older twin didn't even notice that his tail was unconsciously moving. Side to side. The fluffy tail had caught Yukio's attention as his eyes followed it.

"Alright, what is it, Yukio?"

Snapping him out of his trance he replied with, "I just wanted to say that I brought you a new game – it's a VRMMORPG. It's called Hell's Forest Online. It came out today and I'm wondering if you will try it with me!"

"Is that all?"

"Yeah, I have two copies of the game along with a NerveGear."

"Alright then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Rin exasperated as he took out of the copies of HFO and one of the NerveGears. He then marched towards his bed as he laid down, staring up at the ceiling. He contemplated the ceiling for a moment before putting on his Gear, closing his eyes as he fell into the darkness. A light enveloped him, as he heard a female voice. "Welcome to Hell's Forest Online."


	2. Entering the World

Ichigo Kurosaki placed his NerveGear on, hesitantly as he took a deep breath. He could feel his orange hair being flattened by the object which was slowly making its way down his head. Before he entered the game of Hell's Forest, he could hear the rain outside, trickling down his window. The orange-haired boy had a bad feeling something was going to happen, but he couldn't quite shake it. That was when he felt completely numb.

"Welcome to Hell's Forest Online," a feminine voice called out from nowhere. The sound seemed to reverberate around the room he appeared to be in. It looked boundless as a title floated above him saying, 'Hell's Forest Online!'

A moment later, a large array of three character races appeared in front of him. One of them was a demon; its appearance looked quite threatening. It had small, sharp horns which appeared out of its head as it slowly curled upwards, looking sort of like Minotaur horns. It had a black tail which appeared out of its rear. It was somewhat long and looked more like an intimidating wing. He turned the character around so its back was facing him and he noticed large, black bat-wings sticking out of it. '_Can they fly?_' He wondered to himself. '_Or are they just for show?_' He added.

Brushing off the thought, he looked at the next character which appeared to be a werewolf-like human. Its tail was slightly long, more like a wolf's as it had fur draping down from it. It had razor-sharp claws which looked to be about one and a half inches long. Its teeth were exponentially threatening as the pearly-white objects stuck down to the chin of the beast. Despite it being a werewolf, it only had fur on the tail and fur which framed the face. On the other hand, the beast's hair looked more like fur as it was quite bushy and hung down in a bed head-like style.

He then looked at the next character. A vampire. Oh how he wasn't expecting that coming... The aforementioned creature was quite tall – or at least taller than the others – and it had long, knife-like fangs which stretched just above the chin. Its eyes were red as they looked piercing; hungry to kill. Something Ichigo wouldn't do without a good reason. The vampire had small wings at the back. They were similar to the demon's wings though they weren't even nearly as big enough. He shook his head and turned to the werewolf once more.

"I think this one should do," he said to himself, pressing down on the interactive picture of the callous creature: werewolf. He nodded as he said that and something else came up after the array of races had disappeared. The werewolf character had appeared in front of him, telling him that he can change the appearance.

He did so, changing the mane's colour to an orange of which it was in real life. He also changed the eye colour to a hazel brown, trying to get the chosen creature to look like him as much as he could. This way, it was easily identifiable for his friends. Happy with how he looked, he clicked the OK button before a small keyboard in front of him appeared.

"Please state your name," the clear voice called out and it requested for him to type in his name.

"I-C-H-I-G-O," Ichigo whispered to himself as he typed it in on the keyboard which lie in front of him. He pressed the 'OK' button at the side of the interactive hologram in front of him, and still, he felt like something bad was going to happen. '_Just one hour..._' he thought to himself as he was transported to a certain area in the game...

* * *

"I think I will go with demon," Kazuto insisted to himself as he pressed down onto the disastrous demon. Once again, the array disappeared. Following the disappearance of the array, the demon of which he chose came up. Kazuto changed the eye colour of the demon from a frozen white, to an onyx black. After that, he changed the hair colour to an onyx black too. He clicked the 'OK' button after that and the heavenly voice sounded out to him.

"Please state your name," it said as a keyboard appeared in front of him. Silently, he obeyed the game and typed in his signature name, Kirito.

After the immense beam of light teleported Kirito into a town, he looked around. To no avail, he couldn't see his girlfriend or adoptive sister. So, he examined the world around him. The town looked vast and serene. Every player was new seen as though they had only just obtained the game, no-one really knew what to do. A few players were frantically searching for their friends; a few players were messaging their friends. But he continued to walk through the enormous town, searching for Asuna and Suguha. They had promised to meet in the same town, seen as though there were four towns. North Gate, East Gate, South Gate and West Gate. At this moment in time, he had no idea which town he was in.

Luckily enough, he had reached a beginner board. The demon character studied the board, looked at all of its contents before he noticed it explaining a few things. They were in the town of North Gate, players will start in different areas around the floor at random. Albeit North, South, East or West. There were one thousand floors and the level cap was five hundred. That would take a while doing.

There were seven main skills which are capped at fifty. Cooking, hunting, sword mastery, bow mastery, spell mastery, agility and thievery. Each of the main skills have sub-skills which help them along their journey. Some examples of sub-skills would be 'Poison Arrow' in the bow mastery, and 'Teleportation' in the spell mastery.

In addition, the board also explains that each character has a different special ability which can only be used once every floor. Vampires' ability allows them to be invulnerable frenzy for sixty seconds. None of their statistics apart from agility gets increased by thirty percent. Though if they go on a new floor and try to activate it without meeting the replenishment requirements, it will not work. The replenishment requirements are that they must drink the blood of twenty enemies. Those enemies have to be alive.

The special ability for demon characters are that they are equipped with one of the legendary weapons for sixty seconds. However, the legendary weapon they are equipped with is random. They do not get to choose. To replenish this as they move onto the next floor, they must kill ten enemies within five seconds. Those enemies have to be on half of their health or higher. The legendary weapons are only available through this special ability.

For werewolves, their special ability allows their claws and fangs to grow to nine inches for sixty seconds. The claws and fangs will glow a luminous light blue as their strength increases increases by twenty percent. To replenish this brutal ability, they would need to beat two other players in a fight. A two against one.

"Hey Kazuto!" A voice sounded behind him in relief. The boy turned around to find two girls stood behind him. One a vampire; one a werewolf. The werewolf was the shortest, though she looked to be older than the other girl stood next to her. She had an orange-brownish chestnut hair which flowed down in what seemed to be in a quite untamed style. Her eyes were hazel and shining with delight as she grinned, showing off her wolf-like fangs. Her clothes were a snow-white colour with blood red seams that outlined the outfit perfectly.

The girl next to her was a vampire. She was quite taller – mostly due to the fact that vampires were originally taller in the selection of creatures they could choose from. She had a deep black eye colour as they gazed into Kirito's onyx black eyes. Her hair was quite short. It was also black too. Her clothing was a plain, white tunic with green seams as they also formed the outline of her clothing choice.

"Asuna? Suguha?" He asked, bewilderedly. It looked strange seeing them like this. Although considering ALO, the feeling was easily wiped away with a single thought. The two girls nodded in agreement as Kirito spoke out once more, gazing into both of their eyes as they looked at him. "Great, I've been looking for you."

"Oh really?" Asuna challenged as she laughed. "It didn't look that way to us."

The demon looked down, then back up as he just came out with, "well I got bored of searching. Besides, I wanted to know what was going on."

"Whatever," Suguha waved off. "You still go by the name of Kirito? Come on, be more original."

Kirito shook his head as he glared at her. "Are you kidding me?" He dead panned. "You still go by the name of Leafa."

"I've only had it for Alfheim Online and Hell's Forest online! You've have it for Sword Art Online, Alfheim Online and now this one!"

"Alright, alright. I get your point. Let's just go find some monsters to kill or something."

Suguha rolled her eyes at his speech. All he ever does it fight, fight and fight. Doesn't he like to explore? There are four large towns just dying to be checked out! Though she guessed that because he's going to explore the territory outside of the tranquillizing town they'll have some fun and discover more awesome points about the game.

* * *

Somewhere else on the first floor a demon just entered as he looked around, searching for his brother. The only reason why he had chosen the character of demon was because it suited him. Maybe he could easily beat the game if he chose what he really was. Even though he didn't like being called a demon in real life, he thought that it would be fine in game. Besides, it would be easier. He would have had experience with it and that would be fine for him. However, as the demon looked around the area he had started in, it took him a while to actually find his brother. His brother who had also chosen the demon character.

"Hey, Yukio!" Rin yelled as he rushed over towards his twin. He had slightly long, hazel-coloured hair – unlike real life – which looked slightly messy. His eyes were as gentle as ever, though they weren't the peaceful, turquoise eyes which started annoyingly at Rin like usual. They were a blank white. His clothing were a black overcoat, just like his exorcist coat he would usually wear outside of the game.

"Rin," his brother said, turning his attention to meet his older brother. He grinned as he stared into his brother's gleaming blue eyes. "Me and this man here were just talking. It seems as if his friends are all far away from him."

Rin turned to look at the man in question. He was a teenager – it seemed as if they were actually more or less the same age as each other. Despite the fact that he was actually pretty tall. The vampire Yukio was talking to had raven-coloured hair which seemed to be perfectly straight as it sort of framed his face. On the other hand, the said hair was quite short. His fangs reached down to just above his chin. However, his eyes were a crimson red; red like the colour of blood. "Hey," Rin said to the vampire quickly as he faced his brother once more. At this moment, the older twin had a bewildered look upon his face. "Who's that?" He asked, pointing to the other player.

"I'm Uryu," the vampire mentioned. There was a hint of annoyance in the tone. The Quincy didn't exactly like to be annoyed...

"Sorry about that," Yukio apologised, rubbing the back of his head as he closed his gentle eyes. The younger demon twin grinned awkwardly, showing his pearly, white teeth.

"Don't worry about it," Uryu brushed off the comment. "Is he your brother you were talking about before?" He glanced over towards the boy of the conversation before his eyes rapidly switched back to Yukio.

"Yes, he is. He's my older twin; don't mind his rude attitude. He acts like that most of the time. The upside is that you get used to it after a while."

"Older? I would have guessed that you were the older one."

"What-?!"

"I get that a lot," the younger one cut his brother off before he could make any 'smart' comments. He looked over to his brother and shook his head, earning an irritated look from the teenager. "By the way, where are your friends?"

"They're in the South Gate right now."

"We're in the North Gate. That will take a while."

"I know. Anyway, I should be going, Rin and Yukio. I need to find my friends – especially Orihime. She would end up getting lost in a merchant's shop..."

"Wait, let's make party. I think it would be the best for all of us if we stick together," Yukio requested as he reached his arm out slightly, stepping forward to stop the raven-haired vampire.

Thinking it over, he nodded silently. Then, the red-eyed beast swiped the air as he brought up the menu. Clicking on the 'create party' button, he invited the two. A message came up in front of them as they accepted without hesitation. "Let's go then, shall we?"

"Right," the other two said without refusing as they walked along the town and towards the exit. Scanning the town around them to get a quick look at the astonishing virtual world around them. This place was huge!

* * *

"Orihime, do you have enough health potions?" Ichigo Kurosaki asked as the two walked along the devastated forest. The place – despite the fact that the greenery looked enchanting – looked like a psychopathic tornado had struck it down.

"Yeah," the orange-haired vampire said excitedly. She loved the game. It was exhilaratingly brilliant to her! A whole new world; a whole new adventure. She wondered how the other guys were doing. It wouldn't be as fun without them.

Suddenly, a pack of vicious wolves appeared out of the trees which surrounded them. Their teeth were razor-sharp as their movements were confident, yet sly. They emitted an intimidating growl as they leaped towards the two! Ichigo, swinging his claws at an exponential rate, struck down one of the wolves which were nearly about to maul the girl as another one jumped in to strike.

"You'd better stand back, Orihime," Ichigo warned protectively. "This is about to get ugly."

"But I need to help too! I will be no use if I don't level up," Orihime whined as she held her hands close to her face. In reality she was quite scared. On the other hand, she knew that it was just a game. Even though Ichigo would feel pretty anguished if she got hurt. That's just how the stubborn orange-haired boy was.

Ichigo grinned as he sliced up another one of the prowling wolves. He turned his head back to face her, giving her a gentle smile before saying to her, "alright, Orihime. Can you back me up with that new support spell you learned? I know it will be at a weak stage, but it gives you some of the experience I earn. Besides, it will help you to increase your magic skill."

Nodded in happiness, she closed her eyes in concentration. She moved her palms upwards, stretching them out in front of her face as the vampire girl opened her eyes. "The power of five fists; I give you strength!" She yelled out, a small, weak, yellow beam shooting out of her hands as the orange-haired werewolf was engulfed in the beam. He had a vague, though noticeable barrier around him. The particles in the barrier seemed weak, even though they moved upwards as a tiny ring around it moved upwards. Regenerating the barrier every fifteen seconds.

Ichigo, powered with extra strength, charged at the remaining monstrous wolves. His claws seemed to be slashing through the air as he moved quickly. He leaped up in the air, descending quicker than ascending as he slashed through the pixels of the now-fading beasts. In truth, the guy was exhausted. His stamina level was just above halfway.

"I think we should rest for a while," Orihime said as she gestured over towards a minuscule camp site with only two wooden logs that accompanied a blazing fire. "I can tell that you're getting tired, Ichigo."

He shook his head, his amber eyes locked with the girl's amber orbs. Ichigo knew that she was worried. He knew that she could see how exhausted he was. Nevertheless, he refused the proposal of resting and they continued on. Searching for monsters as well as make their way over to the centre of the map where he had agreed to meet his friends. It was good that they could do some training. In addition, it was good that they could actually take a break from his substitute Soul Reaper duties too.


	3. Entering the World II

"We must have been in this game for hours," Rukia mentioned as Chad and her walked along the murky paths of the sinister forest from Hell. "I wonder how the others are doing," she added as she glanced up at the taller werewolf – Chad.

"I bet they're doing fine," Chad insisted as his eyes were locked on the half-destroyed path in front of them. "Besides, it's the weekend. We have a long time to consistently play on here. Once we have defeated the boss floor, I'm sure some of us would have to go."

The demon, Rukia, looked up at the sky. It was covered in stars which shone majestically along with the moon which beautifully reflected its light to the mentioned stars. Though what was confusing about the moon was that it wasn't a pallid white like usual. It was more of a crimson colour. Like a blood moon. "I guess you're right. It would take a lot more than a few virtual monsters to take Ichigo down. Though I do kind of feel sorry for Orihime seen as though she's with the guy."

Chad grunted in question as why she would say that. Everyone knows that Orihime had a thing for Ichigo. So why would they need to feel sorry for the orange-haired female? That answer couldn't exactly be explained, but Rukia herself knew what she was talking about. Probably because the boy is naive. Very naive. Sometimes helpless when it comes to situations like these – especially awkward ones.

Finally, they had managed to reach the centre of the floor. The large cave-like structure in front of them – a dungeon no less – stood bravely as it towered over the duo. It was massive! A wave of tension flew over the small group of a werewolf and demon. Though as it flew over them, it passed instantly. They felt excited, though at the same time it was quite creepy and a little bit intimidating. It felt real to them. Despite the fact that it's not, it felt all too real.

The raven-haired, female demon looked around. "I don't think monsters like us today, we're not getting attacked as much as the others parties we see."

She leaned against the cold, sturdy wall of the dungeon an noticed that a party of three was heading this way – and fast. They looked exhausted, not to mention horrified! The aforementioned group of three were in the distance. The greenery seemed to be looming over them as they sprinted for their lives. Bu what didn't shock Chad and Rukia was the fact that the were darting towards them at an incredible speed. The taller one going faster than the other two who were screaming for him to wait for them. What did shock them was the fact that a large beast, looked more like a dragon, was following them! Its tail swished from side-to-side, his dagger-like teeth and claws were all but friendly. The beast was terrifying! Its blood red eyes pierced the souls of the innocent as it roared at their cowardice.

Despite its appearance, the monstrous creature was only a level nine monster. Nothing too scary, though they were still only on the first floor. It could have been a sub-boss. One of those who hide in peak of the weaker dungeons.

* * *

"Hey, Uryu! Slow down a bit, if we're dying so are you!" Rin yelled in an aggravated tone.

"I'm not running," Uryu stated loudly, almost shouting as he continued to sprint.

"Oh, it sure looks like it to me!"

"Stop it, you two! Look over there, there's some people!" Yukio mentioned as sweat rolled down their foreheads from running too much. Their stamina levels were getting low and fast. Why did they have to try a level eight dungeon?! Uryu Ishida was only a level five. The other two were level sixes. They passed through the first stage as if it was a summer breeze; the second stage was slightly harder. However, when it came to the boss stage, they must have been so lucky that the said side-dungeon didn't have a barrier that prevented them from leaving.

They looked over in the distance, then behind them. The dragon was on their tail and the beastly monster was catching up to them rapidly. In the distance, the two people looked at them bewilderedly. Even though their expression changed once they saw their chaser. The duo shook their heads rapidly; their hands moving that speed too. Rukia and Chad were the two in the distance, though it was hard for Uryu to notice that. They were gesturing him to not get any closer as they didn't want to die but a few feet away from them and they stopped. The dragon stopping too.

They skidded to a halt, standing side-by-side next to Rukia and Chad. The two looked devastated. Uryu's, Rin's and Yukio's health were almost at none – Rukia's and Chad's were at full. The dragon's at just above half – sort of an advantage for them.

They just had to save them now...

The destructive dragon in front of them growled, trying to strike fear into the hearts of the players who opposed them. It grinned at its new food. Fresh meat stood directly opposite of the beast. It psychotic smile was barely noticeable due to the fact that it had its mouth open ajar from the teeth which propped it up.

"Uryu?" Rukia wondered aloud as she glanced at the new additions to the group. Or at least she hoped they were allies. From what they did – nearly getting them all killed – it seemed as if they were against them. Even though they only needed help. She could tell from the bar above their heads that they could die if they have another hit or two from it.

"Rukia? Chad?" He wondered in amazement. He finally met his friends. Uryu looked at her, then back to the dragon so as not to let his guard down, with his crimson eyes that held determination. "I'm glad I found you guys. This is a one in a life time question I'm going to ask. But... can you help us?"

"Sure," Chad said as the two scattered. Rukia around the left of the dragon, Chad around the right. "Just use this time to heal yourself and go look for Ichigo and the others."

Rin, Yukio and Uryu nodded at what the bulky werewolf said. They quickly swiped the air around them, bringing up the menu as they made their way down to their inventory. Scanning it for healing potions. The trio made sure they had stocked up on loads. This way they weren't going to die quicker. Although, it the duo weren't there to save them, they would have died. That would have been petrifying.

"Return to Hell from whence you came; Incinerate level two!" Rukia yelled as she held out her palms, a small burst of fire flicked from her palms, setting the dragon on fire for a brief moment. It grunted in pain as the flame spell did barely any damage. Turning its attention to the female demon. The raven-haired girl stepped back, her eyes flying off in every direction as she looked for a weaker place. Its scales were red as they shone from the reflection of the red, blood moon. They looked as if they were on fire.

Flames of fury built up in the beast's mouth, spinning around in its jaws before it let out a burst of flames! Quickly, Chad who was on the other side, jumped up in the air, landing on the deadly head of the brutal beast, its eyes glaring up at him. It felt like it was chipping away at his soul. Brushing off the feeling, Chad raised his claws in the air, fur rippling in the wind as his claws reflected red. Crimson red. His hand descended into the skull, tearing out the flesh of the beast as blood trickled down the monster's head. It yelled in agony as it flailed its body around in an attempt to take down one of them with it.

The dastardly creature's HP was decreasing at an alarming rate from the critical hit. Chad's claws soaked in blood as he jumped off the dragon of which fell to the floor. Dead. They all examined the monster. Uryu, Rin and Yukio gazed wide-eyed. He flicked the liquid off of his claws, the substance landing on the floor, staining the ground beneath them. The beast disappeared at its pixels scattered, rising to the sky before it vanished into the sinister night. However, they also noticed a smaller amount of particles quite far in the distance floating upwards before it vanished into nothingness.

"Hey, guys!" A voice yelled out from the shadows. Two figures gradually came closer as they ran. "Did we miss anything?" The figures came into sight, and a few of the larger group's members noticed who he was. A werewolf, claws like daggers, teeth like knives. The other member of the smaller group was a female vampire. Two teeth – thin, yet strong – stuck out. Stretching to just above the chin. Both of the figures had orange hair, one longer than the other. Both of them looked relieved as they had finally found their friends after a long period of searching for them. Ichigo and Orihime wiped the sweat from their foreheads as they came to a halt, standing opposite the group of which consisted of Rin, Yukio, Uryu, Rukio and Chad.

Chad looked around at the other members. They seemed to have gotten over what just happened. Their health were at full and their stamina had slightly regenerated. He shook his head and grunted in a way of saying 'no' and turned to face the dungeon before saying, "we should go."

"Right," the group said simultaneously as they walked into the depths of the abyss-like dungeon.

"So, are you Ichigo?" Rin asked the orange-haired werewolf. His hands were behind his head, supporting it as he walked freely and carelessly.

Ichigo turned his attention to the boy who asked, a demon. He had wings which sprouted from his back, his tail randomly flicking back and forth, side to side. His blue eyes were locked onto Ichigo's hazel-brown colour. There were determination in both pairs of eyes along with a spark of fire. Fire which fuelled them. Fire which enabled them to do whatever they like, whenever. It was stubbornness as well as hope. "Yeah, I am. Who are you?" He turned his face back to the path they were walking down.

"I'm Rin, Rin Okumura."

"Well, Rin, nice to meet you. Who's the other one?"

"Oh Yukio? That's my little brother. We're twins."

"Twins?" Ichigo asked, looking over to the brown-haired male, then back to Rin. He held a perplexed expression on his face as he cocked his head slightly. "You don't exactly look like twins."

Rin laughed slightly. "I know, we get that a lot."

"But wait, how can you be older if you're his _twin_."

"I was born first."

"Right," Ichigo dead-panned as he mentally slapped himself.

"Who's the girl?"

"That's Orihime," Ichigo smiled. "I'd never let her get hurt."

"Know her outside the game?"

"Yeah, we're great friends. We go to the same high school."

"Do you two-?"

"No, we don't!" Ichigo said rapidly, a blush creeping up on his face. Earning a mischievous grin from the demon-boy.

* * *

"Level seven, nice one Asuna," Kirito said as he sheathed his sword. "How are you holding up, Suguha?" He asked, turning to face his adoptive sister who was currently fighting off a flaming, red Imp. Its tail was pointy and slightly small as it held a dagger in one hand. The Imp had a cheeky smile upon its face as it continuously laughed at the woman who struggled to fight it off. It wasn't her fault she was only level five.

"I'm doing... fine!" She reassured, pushing away the creature with her battleaxe. "You're the one taking all of my kills. I can't level up when you're rushing through this all!" She aimed to attack the red creature but it dodged just before she could hit it. Who knew something so small could be so annoying? Usually they're cuter. But not this one. Suguha had never known anything so annoying! This game was really getting to her. It was fun – though it did get quite annoying at times.

"Ha!" She yelled as she speedily raced around the Imp, slicing it as she sent it flying! The tiny creature's particles disappearing as it scattered off into the night. Looking up, she also noticed more particles coming from the direction they were headed off to. It was a much larger portion compared to the one she sent upwards. Suguha was annoyed at this. She could barely defeat a simple Imp, and somewhere else people are defeating much harder creatures.

Suddenly, from nowhere, a party of five vampires appear! They surrounded the group, closing in on them as Kirito managed to see their levels. All of the enemy vampires seemed to be level six. This wasn't exactly going to be easy due to the fact that they're in a PvP zone. Not to mention they're outnumbered, five to three. However, there was one vampire in particular that he noticed. He looked different – and his level was eight...

"What are you doing?" Kirito asked cautiously as he ripped his sword out from behind him. The onyx blade shone from the crimson reflection of the moon.

"We've seen you fight; we've come to take all your possessions! So hand it over before we kill you!" The higher levelled enemy stated as he came closer.

The group stood their ground, Asuna with her claw-enhancing gauntlets at the ready. Suguha with her sword out with one of her hands, a fireball at the ready in her other hand. Their eyes were set and focussed on winning. They weren't about to let their adversaries have their way and win. They'd rather die before they had what they wanted.

"Oh really?"Kirito challenged. "Try it!"


	4. Plan: Combination?

The mysterious vampires started to swoop in! All of them swooping in and out, in and out, in and out. Each of them taking a large leap forwards and backwards with their weapons in their hands gripped firmly as they they attacked their victims. All of them attacking but their leader who watched. He watched and laughed psychotically as their prey were struggling to fight off. Blocking with everything they can as their health was slowly deteriorating. "I told you to give up and hand it over!" He roared, laughing as his underlings were attacking like eagles with razor-sharp claws; trying to take their food back to their nest.

"Flames of fury, turn them to ashes as you shield me; Flame Barrier level three!" Suguha chanted as she held out her hands, her head turned to the side with he eyes closed as he attempted to protect herself from the deadly attacks of the enemy. Raging flames shot out of her hands, the monstrous fire engulfing the small group in a shield of fire. However, since it is a level three spell, the spell was not very strong. It would not hold forever. So, they had to make the most of this time to recover and counter-attack! "It's not strong," Suguha commented. "Don't be surprised if they break through my fire. Although they're not higher levels themselves; they most likely can't do it easily, though."

"That's fine," Kirito said, holding his sword in an iron grip. The sword slightly tinted red around the edges from the blazing fire which reflected onto it. "We'll just have to fight our way out of this one," he continued, looking around at his girlfriend, Asuna, and his half-sister/cousin, Suguha. Asuna nodded, then the other female nodded. They know what he was signalling. They saw the determination in his steel black eyes.

On the outside, the vampires – altogether – joined their hands and the leader raised his hand. Their joined hands made it sure that their energy and power would all go straight into the caster of the spell. Making the spell at least double its usual effect. His palm stretched open before aiming it directly towards the blazing barrier of the fierce fire. Smirking in delight and victory as he chuckled with success, he yelled out the chant, "drown and weep in the tears from the Gods; Water Blast level two!"

As he yelled those words, a large surge of water, twice as powerful, came straight out of his palms. The surge of the devastating water gushing forth as it struck the barrier of flames! The said fierce barrier being doused with water as it the flames died down. Small parts of the steam arising from it, floating up meeting the air and disappearing away into the wind. Although, the large patch of steam was still circling the group; spinning rapidly as it whipped the area around it. The mischievous grins of the enemies died down as they noticed three shadows arising from the now-vanished area of steam, Asuna with her dagger-like claws; Kirito with his reckoning sword; Leafa with her piercing sword. All of them dashing upwards into the air, their weapons out straight in front of them as they quickly pierced three of the vampires. Blood splashing out from where the swords had exited and entered the bodies. The crimson liquid spluttering out from the sudden claw marks on another.

The rest of the enemies were shocked. They were surprised at the animosity their opponents had committed on their comrades. They saw the victorious gleam in their eyes as their morale descended slightly. Stepping back in an attempt to keep away from the vicious beings. The group of three dropped to the ground after ripping their weapons from their targets. Looking up at them with irritating. The mentioned bodies turned into particles. Those particles gleaming from the blood moon as they floated up slowly, ascending as they eventually disappeared. Gasps were heard from among the group of attackers, unbeknownst that their prey had leaped up in the air once more. Ready to attack as their weapons shone, a growl escaping their lips.

* * *

"It's this way," Rukia yelled as they ran through the murky dungeon. The walls around them had disgusting moss groing all over them, the stony walls were sturdy as they strongly kept the whole dungeon up and standing. Panting was heard from the team, but stopped as two of the members had slowed down to a halt.

Noticing this, Ichigo, Uryu, Chad, Orihime and Rukia had stopped too, looking back towards the two demons, Rin and Yukio, who had stopped a short while back. "What's wrong?" Ichigo asked, the group walking towards each other, slowly.

"Me and my brother need to go," Rin said as both of the twins swiped the air, their menu appearing as they tried to exit the game. They both swiped along the menu, searching for the exit button when they had found it. However, their faces turned to turned to stone with petrified expression as something had appeared to them. Something they really didn't want to see.

"What happened?" Uryu asked his eyes turning serious as he noticed their expressions. They were... frightened? Of what? "Hey, hey! What's wrong?" He asked again as he had no response previously. Uryu looked back towards the group their faces serious and puzzled just like his. Due to the menu being invisible to everyone else apart from the user who opened it, they had no idea what had happened. Did they log out already? No, they couldn't have. Their expressions wouldn't be that scared – unless of course it was painful..?

Snapping out of their trance, Rin and Yukio looked towards the group. They had no idea what was happening. "I-We can't log out!" Rin ranted, his eyes darting towards everyone as they had their eyes on his. Even though Yukio was still gazing at his menu. Pressing the 'log out' button.

Orihime gasped at this, her arms coming up to her chin as she stepped backwards. "W-What could this mean?" She asked, taking another careful step backwards. Her werewolf mane flowing in the small breeze of the dungeon's stale air.

Chad shook his head, he tried to remain stoic. However, that wasn't an option at this moment in time; he too was bewildered at the sudden turn of events. "Why don't we try to log out too? It could just be a bug for either you... or all of us."

Ichigo and Uryu nodded before Rukia spoke up, all attention turning to her. "It will probably be fixed by the system administrators," she said, trying to keep herself – and everyone else – calm. "However, just let us try to log out, you never know, you could be the only ones who can't."

"Alright," Ichigo said as he swiped the air, bringing his menu and scrolling down. Scrolling down towards the 'log out' button. He pressed the button. Waiting a few seconds before a devastating error in a large black box appear in front of his eyes. Inside of the box was white writing. It was white despite the title which was a blood red. Just like the moon which laid in the sky. The large title said, "ERROR!" Whereas the description of the box only said, "YOU CANNOT LOG OUT!" All in block capitals.

"What?" Came voices from all over the group. Gasps and quiet squeals emitting from the whole party, looks of frustration, annoyance and perplexity.

"This has to be be wrong," Uryu commented as he glared at his own menu. Crimson eyes flickering to the team. "It could be possible that we cannot log out in a dungeon."

"Uryu could be right. Maybe we have to return to the town."

"I just hope you're right, Chad."

Chad nodded to the statement that Rin Okumura had made. His eyes locked onto the demon's as he turned to face the way towards the area where the floor boss was. They had already lost some time panicking in the disastrous dungeon, so now they had to make up for the time and hurry up. It was already one in the morning in the next day.

"Let's go," Ichigo mentioned. Turning away and running forwards with the whole group behind him following.

* * *

The team of Kirito, Asuna and Suguha had leapt up in the air, their weapons and claws glowing a blood red colour in the crimson moon. Kirito yelling a fierce roar as he looked down to the frightened vampires opposing them. Their red eyes reflected their incoming prey as they had turned relentless. Kirito, Asuna and Suguha all caught in the heat of the battle; the moment of being merciless. Leafa – the character name of Suguha – quickly placed a barrier around her adopted brother, Kirito, and friend, Asuna.

A red light engulfing the two, followed by a pale yellow light which enveloped the two. Both of them grinning as their maximum health had risen, their strength growing in a small a small amount as they each struck down one of the monstrous vampires! Sending them flying backwards as they looked up, they were hunched over their weapons in the jammed ground with their adversary's blood stained on it.

The other vampires were nervous, stepping back slightly as their morale had fallen heavily. Most of their team had already died. The two which had been struck were dying – almost gone from the devastating attack from their overpowered prey. "You made a big mistake attacking my sister and my girlfriend," Kirito growled in rage. He let out a cry of a roar, jumping up with his sword to the side, slicing up one of them who tried to escape. The mentioned enemy who tried to escape cried out in pain, hitting the large trunk of a tree before his eyes widened.

"No!" The enemy yelled as he burst out in a coughing fit. Falling over forwards as he turned into particles. The particles floating up smoothly and softly towards the crimson moon as they disappeared.

"Watch out!" Suguha yelled towards Kirito and Asuna, their eyes snapped backwards as he flipped around. His sword slashing so fast it look as if it hadn't moved. No-one would have even known that the enemy behind them had even been cut until a gigantic slash had opened up on the enemy's body. Said enemy's eyes opened wide with fear and agony – not to mention shock and terror.

Finally, after seeing his subordinates around him fall to the floor in fear, the leader stepped up. Fuelled with rage. Despite his anger, his face was calm although his eyes were glaring daggers into the souls of the opposition. "How dare you," the man growled. "How dare you destroy my comrades?!" He roared out in distress.

Kirito, Asuna and Suguha stood there. The younger female, Suguha, stood back from the man. She was slightly terrified at his tone, and trembled for a moment before feeling a warm object on her shoulder. Flinching, she glanced over. Kirito was stood there. Stood by her side as the black-haired boy scowled at the man. Suguha calmed down. Her friend and brother were at her side, they could protect her with her life; she knew that she was going to get out of this alive. Besides, there was one left. Even though he was a higher level than all of them.

Asuna growled, she sprinted up to the man with her claw weapons at the ready. Speedily, as fast as the whistling wind, Asuna jabbed her dagger-like claws forwards and lunged. However, her attempts were futile as the leader raised his sword slightly, matching and beating her speed and deflecting the young werewolf's attack. Time seemed to stop. Suguha's expression was petrified as she noticed how the man had easily blocked and deflected her friend's attack. Kirito's stern eyes continued to scowl into the enemy's eyes, his hand tightly gripped on his onyx sword. Asuna was in the air, one arm forward with her claws meeting the vampire's sword, yet she was completely prevented from going any further.

As time resumed, the man smirked. He pulled his sword away and rapidly kicked the werewolf away, Asuna being flung backwards and hit the sturdy ground beneath her, unconscious. The vampire sprinted towards the woman, ready to finish off his prey and acquire revenge for his party. He continued to grin as he noticed how helpless and impotent she looked on the floor. He came to a short halt and quickly slashed the space in front, smiling at what seemed to be victory. The enemy's psychotic grin dropped. He noticed that what he targeted didn't get cut. Instead, Suguha had taken the vital blow, a pained expression plastered on her face. "Insect, move out of my way!" He yelled out as he threw Suguha, the girl who had taken the hit, into a tree. The force of his powerful punch forcing blood to come out of her mouth.

Kirito watched in distraught. His adoptive sister and his beautiful girl had fallen to this monster. "How dare you attack those closest to me?!" Kirito yelled out as he lunged towards him, an extirpative expression engulfing his exasperated eyes . He roared out in annoyance as the demon character thrust his sword forwards to meet the vampire's sword. Said sword was long like a lance, the edges were a luminescent silver, whereas the inner surface of the sword was a crimson red. It had a sinister aura surrounding the sword. Despite the fact that the aforementioned aura was thin, the black, smoke-like aura could be seen if looked clearly. Their eyes met. Vengeful into vengeful.

* * *

Rin and the others ran through the boundless, threatening dungeon. They were exhausted and irritated. All they wanted to do right now was get this over and done with, then they could repair their equipment and log out of the game. Well... that's if their theory of only being allowed to log out in town was even correct. Right now, they were devastated – even if they didn't show it. Finally, they had reached an enormous cave-like room in the dungeon. They all looked around the gigantic area. It was similar a shadowed abyss. The whole room had an atmosphere which crawled with evil, sending nasty shivers down the spines of the whole group. The group knew where they were. The boss hideout.

Suddenly, without warning, a colossal rock crashed down a few inches away from the Hell's Forest Online players and sent awful shock waves through the ground which disorientated them. A few quiet screams were heard, and gasps of disturbance escaped the lips of the other few which hadn't screamed. Glaring at the rough rock which had dropped down, the team rapidly recovered and cautiously walked over towards it. Rotating round to get a better view. "What is this thing?" Ichigo questioned loudly, hoping that a useful response would emit from one of the other members of the group.

"I don't know," Uryu commented. "I don't think I want to know either," he added as he continued to inspect the large object. He noticed something that you could only see with sharp, eagle eyes. There were small sparks of light appearing every now and then. Though it was blended in the rock, and only appeared in the tiny cracks which were barely noticeable.

"Maybe the sky is falling down!" Orihime spoke out, worriedly as she failed her trembling arms; running around the room like a mad man – or mad woman in her case.

"No, it's something bigger than that."

"Like what, Yukio?!" Rin yelled out, obviously perplexed as he had no idea what was going on. Although, he wasn't the only one who was confused about this whole situation.

All of a sudden, a large shock wave emitted from the giant boulder! The huge spark which emitted directly hit the group, sending them all into a wall; a large crack heard from them as if they'd broken all their bones. "Ugh, you guys alright?" Chad asked as he grunted in pain.

"Yeah..." Ichigo confirmed as he slowly stood up, also grunting in pain from what had just happened. He rubbed his head and questioned. As he and the others regained their balance, he glared over towards what had struck him down with sinister shock wave. He then glanced over to Orihime Inoue, the girl who was leaning against the sturdy cave wall. Growling in annoyance, the boy yelled out and lunged forwards towards the monstrous being, his claws glowing with rage; its colour matching the crimson blood moon which lingered in the ominous skies due to him activating one of his skills. However, as he lunged towards it, the rock collapsed! "Watch out, Ichigo, get back here!" Uryu shouted towards him, Ichigo not listening as he was taken in by surprise from the mysterious structure that had collapsed. The werewolf landed. He glared at the stone structure once more.

"What is it?" Ichigo replied as he glanced backwards to the group. His concerned eyes landing on Orihime. Then landing on Rukia, Chad and the rest of them.

"We don't know what this thing is."

"Quite frankly I don't care. It hurt my friends so I'm going to kill it!"

"Let me in on that," Rin commented slyly as he ran forwards, speedily.

Nevertheless, as they didn't expect it, the pile of rubble started to shake. It trembled as it started to move! All of the stones coming together mysteriously as a bright light formed where they were conjoining; piling on top of each other! Out of the blue, the light suddenly down with a murderous howl replacing it! Gasps were heard from the team, and Orihime, (who was still recovering) yelled out to the boys, "get out of there!" Her eyes melting with despair and desperation for them to move. The large lightning golem stood behind them. Their breath was taken from them as they received a direct punch, throwing them backwards. Despite this, Ichigo bounced back up and counter-attacked the monster, only slightly scratching the rocky golem, then he jumped away as he realised he couldn't do any more damage to it than that.

"Damn it! How do we beat something like that if its going to end up almost killing us with each hit?!"

"Calm down, Ichigo, we need a strategy."

"We don't have time, Yukio! It could attack us at any s–" Ichigo was cut of from his speech as he dived over the next attack the fiend had launched at them. Large rocks appeared from nowhere and started to be flung towards them. "Whatever you do, don't die."

"We weren't planning on dying yet," Rukia said as she dodged over one of the aforementioned rough rocks.

"Barrier of light level two!" Orihime yelled out rapidly as she raised her hands, they were stretched out in desperation as an intense wall of blinding light protected them from an unexpected attack no-one (apart from Orihime) had noticed. The wall of light quickly disappeared, leaving Orihime on the ground, panting for breath.

"Orihime!" Many yells were heard from the party in different directions. She looked up, sweat dripping onto the floor as she gave a fake, reassuring smile.

"I'm fine... that just took a lot out of me."

"You're not fine! I won't let you get hurt."

"But it's just a game, Ichigo."

"I know, but even if it is a game or not I will protect my friends."

She nodded. "I don't think you two sitting over there and just talking is going to help anyone!" Uryu shouted across the cave. The vampire aimed his longbow upwards towards the callous golem and shot it. Despite it not doing much damage, it managed to catch the creature's attention. A groan of annoyance emitting from said monster. More arrows were rapidly fired at the lightning golem, each of them hitting it, but dying out on impact. Dying out like a tiny flame hitting a large bed of freezing water.

"I don't think attacking on our own will work," Chad mentioned. "Maybe we have to combine our attacks," he continued on as he evaded a heavy swing.

"Chad is correct," Rukia commented. "We need to combine all of our attacks into one with extra support from the members of our party who are better at spell-casting."

"But how?" A demon, Rin, questioned in irritation.

"I don't know, brother, but it has to work out somehow. If one attack won't make a do damage on it, then we're going to have to combine all of them. Does everyone have enough mana?" Yukio said.

"Yes," they all said concurrently.

"Orihime, you think you can boost our strength?"

"Mm," she mumbled towards the orange-haired werewolf in front of her. Nodding as she tried to maintain her stamina level to the highest it could possibly go. The female stood up, focussing her energies on her team-mates as she grinned happily. She could finally do something to help everyone. Flicking her mane-like hair backwards, she pushed her arms out in front of her. The werewolf closed her eyes and shrieked out, "Power of Four Fists, Strength level four!" A ring – slightly brighter than before – of yellow light engulfed her, and her party. "Now, everyone use your skills!"

"Heaven Piercing Claws!" Ichigo roared out as his claws grew into long, thin, razor-sharp claws with an imprint of a wolf on the side. The claws were engulfed in a sinister black and red light. In addition to this, mist lingered around the claws.

"Blades of Rage!" Chad grunted loudly. His werewolf claws dropping out into his hands. The claws turning into daggers as they moulded together; the daggers eventually growing and reshaping into swords. Swords which seemed to emit an aura of rage.

"Blood Arrow!" Uryu howled as he yanked out one of his arrows from his quiver. The whole arrow was coated in thick blood. The blood dripping onto the floor and melting everything it touched. The ground seemed to scream in pain from the blood. Uryu's bow extended; the colour changing to a disgusting red too.

"Frozen Fear!" Rukia shouted as she grinned. She placed both hands on the hilt. One hand pulled towards the right, whereas the other pulled to the left revealing two swords. Both swords were frozen over as a blanket of ice hugged the sword, the blade flashing from the blood moon.

"Howl of the Hell-Hound!" Rin yelled out as threw his sword in the air, it exploding into blue flames! As the moment passed, what dropped down was not the same sword as before. It had changed itself into a long katana which had been engulfed in howling, blue flames. All of it except for the hilt.

"Cannons of Fire!" Yukio called out as his sword let out an immense light. As it died down, the sword had changed. As a matter of fact, there wasn't even a sword. Yukio's hands had been changed into explosive cannons. The colour was a hell-red like and it looked as if his arms had been mangled and mauled. The barrel shone with a mysterious aura, almost as if it grinned maliciously.

"Now attack!" All of them roared as they fired their weapons! Ichigo stood in place, flinging his fists as the frightening power was being forced forwards as it slashed against the enemy. Chad's sword quickly glowed as he threw them forwards towards the lightning golem simultaneously with the other's attacks. Uryu quickly firing his arrows which had been covered in an intimidating red. The arrows exploded on impact. Rukia leaped up into the air as everyone fired off their attacks. Quickly, she slashed in the air, gigantic spikes of ice magically appearing out of the twin swords as they smashed into the enemy. Rin unleashed his fierce flames from the sword, the aforementioned flames striking down the monster and Yukio, his twin, fired off his cannons. The bullets sinking deep into the enemy as they exploded! All of the attacks had concurrently been fired off. A tremendous explosion enveloping the whole area! Cries of pain were heard from monsters in the cave, the team and the floor boss. Exhausted squeals were also heard from the team as bodies dropped to the floor due to the large amount of stamina they had lost from unleashing one of their most powerful attacks; over-exerting themselves to produce the largest amount of damage which could almost rival their ultimate.

"Is... is it o-over?"

"...No."

* * *

**Finally! This chapter took a long time for me to write. It's just over 4000 words! That's almost as long as my FMA one shot :O (5,500 words :D). This whole chapter was only 5 pages in a word document too (font size 9).**

**By the way, don't forget to vote on my poll on who you think will die first. You can have up to three votes, but you can also review who you think will die first. Don't go thinking this is a spoiler – I will not reveal who will die until the chapter comes. (Flips through planning book... five minutes later...) The death won't come for a long while. But um... don't think this is a surprise, there is character death written in the description, and a lot of people die in SAO. **


	5. Boss: Defeated! Legendary Sword!

**Don't forget to vote on my poll for this fanfiction on my profile! :D**

* * *

Sheathing his blood-coated sword, Kirito grunted in annoyance. Crimson flicked off as it was gently placed into its holder. Lying on the floor were piles of bodies which slowly turned into tiny, glowing fragments of souls. The wandered up into the world as they had been destroyed from both life in the game... and out. Eyes widening as the mentioned boy had remembered that his companions had been knocked out by the monstrous man. Quickly, he turned around and faced where the two lay and dashed straight towards them before diving down to make sure they were fine.

***Flash Back***

_He continued to grin as he noticed how helpless and impotent she looked on the floor. He came to a short halt and quickly slashed the space in front, smiling at what seemed to be victory. The enemy's psychotic grin dropped. He noticed that what he targeted didn't get cut. Instead, Suguha had taken the vital blow, a pained expression plastered on her face. "Insect, move out of my way!" He yelled out as he threw Suguha, the girl who had taken the hit, into a tree. The force of his powerful punch forcing blood to come out of her mouth._

_Kirito watched in distraught. His adoptive sister and his beautiful girl had fallen to this monster. "How dare you attack those closest to me?!" Kirito yelled out as he lunged towards him, an extirpative expression engulfing his exasperated eyes._

***End of Flash Back***

"S-Suguha?! A-Asuna?!" He yelled out in question. The boy's eyes were filling with tears, his chest felt as if it had clenched up into a tight ball, restricting his breathing. The demon's hands were trembling and frozen with fear. He placed his hands on their cheeks, feeling their soft skin. He then placed his hands on their shoulders, shouting for them once more. "Come on, wake up!" Worry consuming his tone. Shaking his head as glimmering tears fell onto the ground, he then heard small groaning from the girls who laid on the floor. Gasping, his eyes sparkled with relief as they darted upwards to meet their eyes which were slowly openings. Fluttering like graceful butterflies.

"I-I'm fine," Suguha said in a jocular tone. "What about you? You look roughed up too," she continued as she examined the demon. Shimmering orbs which were a dark onyx filled with tears from the callous emotion of distress, yet it also had concealed rage inside. Small patches of dirt covered his face in various areas, though cuts were all over his body. Liquid oozing out carelessly. His coal-coloured hair had been roughed; left in a complete state like he had been dragged through a bush backwards.

"We should go," Asuna mentioned as the group stood up, each one of them thoroughly examining their health, stamina and mana points. In addition, they observed their EXP points and noticed that they were close to levelling up, despite that they had almost no health left from the calamitous clash. Suguha being on the lowest. "Here – take this," Asuna gestured as she pulled out a small HP potion (and her final one).

Raising her hands to her neck, she shook her head rapidly as well as took a step backwards, refusing. "No, you should use it. I really wouldn't want to take your last potion, besides I'll be fine... Really I will!"

Sighing, Kirito took a step forwards. "Suguha," he said as he placed his hands on her shoulders, staring into her also pitch-black eyes. "Just take the potion, Asuna will be fine. I won't let any one of you die."

"Alright then." Suguha reached out for the glass bottle of which its contents were a red liquid. She popped the cap before slowly placing it up to her mouth, the liquid trickling down into her throat, though a small stream of the potion has managed the escape and drizzle down her lips and chin. After she had finished the drink, she lazily wiped her face. Grinning in awkwardness.

"Are we going towards the boss floor now?" Asuna questioned, walking forwards towards the cavern where the boss lies.

"Yeah, I know you're not on full health, but we can win this one easily."

They scrambled around through the dungeon, easily eliminating each and every enemy which stood in their way. However, as they walked through to the final stage of the dungeon, they noticed some other group were there, fighting the boss... and losing. The health of the brutal beast was around 75%, whereas the health of almost all of the group were only varying between 30% and 50%. Each of them were just striking blindly. None of them even cared about teamwork, apart from the one spell caster who stood back and enhanced their defence and strength, straining her body to suit and protect her friends. "What are you doing?" Kirito roared out to the team who were trying to fight the monster.

The lead attacker, a werewolf, had stopped and turned to look at the black-haired demon. "We're fighting this bastard, what does it look like?" He darted to the left, dodging the incoming powerful punch from the lightning golem. Sweat ran down the werewolf's face, he was overexerting himself; trying to do this all by himself.

Kirito shook his head, "you can't do this alone! You all need to work together!"

"We tried," another one of the group said. This one was a vampire. His eyes looked threatening, and his aim with a bow was exceptionally amazing for a low level. "However it seems as if we attempt to combine our attacks, it barely does any damage to this beast."

The group which consisted of Asuna, Suguha and Kirito whipped out their weapons and jumped in, ready to assist the struggling group. "We've done something like this before," Asuna mentioned. "We know how we can do this."

"How?"

"We need a plan, we can't just attack in the same area against a lightning golem – it can easily prevent the attack by focussing its energy into one specific area."

Each of them stood in awe at how the female werewolf was easily able to tell that just by being in the presence of the boss. Lightning, vicious and disastrous emitted from the monster! The blue and intimidating crackling streams of light which roared with frustration erupted from the rocky creature. The cataclysmic bolts hit the floor, creating a menacing earthquake which shook the ground with force! Knocking some of the group off their feet, making them lose their balance.

"Well, what's the plan then?" Uryu asked as he leaped over the giant golem, landing at the side of the new group. His attention was split up between both the adversary and the new comrades who coincidentally came to help them in the time of need.

"We're going to have to use our ultimate attacks. Currently, most of us are under levelled in comparison to the boss. Even with all of us it will be extremely difficult to beat that thing," Kirito said.

"Some of us had already used out ultimate attacks before."

"That's fine, there's plenty of us here who can attack. The only challenging part is to recharge our ultimate once we've done with this. However, one wrong move when using it, and you've wasted it for this floor."

Each of Ichigo's group nodded. "I'm Ichigo Kurosaki," Ichigo said, then gestured to his group one by one. "That's Uryu, Yukio, Rin, Orihime, Rukia and Chad." Each of them waved quickly, but then fired off one of their attacks as a counter-attack to the enemy. "We're still waiting the cool-down of our most powerful attacks – not our ultimate, so don't worry about that."

"Wait, you used them already?!" Suguha asked enraged. "And yet it's still not dead?! If you keep being reckless and attack without a full-built plan then you're going to get yourselves killed!"

"This is only the floor one boss, though. It shouldn't be that hard!"

"The only reason it's hard," Kirito started, "is because no-one really knows how to fight properly. Everyone come over here!"

As ordered, each one of the team made their way over towards him, their attention was divided and spread equally between both enemy and the boy who was going to devise a quick plan. Yells of rage emitted from the boss, each member rapidly evading away from the targeted spot before they all managed to get together again. "Someone place a barrier!" A yell was heard from Rukia as sweat drops of concern and annoyance dripped down. The whole room was scorching hot. Each of them felt as if they weren't going to make it out alive.

"Red Shields of Anger weep upon their souls: Barrier level two!" Someone rapidly muttered, though their voice gradually grew higher, spiking like a sharp needle into a roar at the end. An aqua-blue bubble suddenly grew out of the caster's hands. The said bubble growing at a steady pace, enveloping the group around them. However, simultaneously, the golem fired off deadly shock waves. Rays of light spreading across the ground like a plague of rats racing to a stash of food. Luckily, the barrier had eventually covered up the whole team, just before they could get sent to the ominous oblivious of death.

Everyone turned towards their caster. Panting, Suguha gave off a reassuring beam. Within the small space of the glowing bubble, everyone dashed towards her, making sure she didn't collapse from the strain of energy. "Just... in time..." she said, noting each and everyone's health down in a mental note. "Any slower and a lot of you would have died."

Kirito shook his head. The mentioned demon was elated, yet speechless. "You're going to be fine, no-one here will let you die."

"It's not me that... that I'm worried about. I did this to protect all of you."

"Orihime, can you heal us?" Rin asked, just before Yukio and Ichigo could. Their mouths were open ajar as they were about to ask the exact same question Rin did, despite the fact that he got there first.

The group laid Suguha down on the floor, her upper back propped up against the wall. The healer nodded her head cautiously, before she turned to face the boss who stood and recharged his energy. Carefully, Orihime muttered several incantations, prepossessing orbs of a variety of colours flew out of her hands and were dazzling as they danced around the group. Her eyes were closed and her lips were moving, even though it seemed as if she wasn't murmuring her words. The orbs grew brighter and more elegant. Her mane-like hair started to flow in rhythm with the statuesque spheres.

"We need to hit that thing's weak spot," Kirito mentioned as a ball of light started to levitate around him.

"How do we do that?" Chad asked. "It's always defending itself when we attack it."

"The vampires here are the fastest, they're more of the agility class. We need them to quickly attack it without consuming their mana and stamina quickly – just to distract them." All heads turned to the vampires.

"So basically, you want the vampires to get themselves killed?"

"No, it's not that at all, Ichigo. That monster is slow – as long as they evade them, they'll be fine."

Ichigo didn't respond. They all decided to listen to Kirito ramble on about the plan instead. Despite how exhausting it was just listening to it.

"So, when the vampires are attacking the creature, it will be trying to fend off all the attacks."

"Just one question," Rin enquired. "Where is it's weak spot?"

"You see that crack over at its stomach? It's slightly bigger than the other ones," Kirito gestured.

"Oh really? I don't see any cracks... oh wait... I see it now," Rin joked, giving them a hobbledehoy beam.

"Then one of us will use our ultimate attack just for the extra power, whereas the rest of us use a strong attack. One which will inflict a lot of damage."

They nodded, however a large crashing sound was heard! Each of them whipped around to face the barrier walls. Orihime, on the other hand was woken from her trance of group healing, the orbs instantly died down, they were fires that had water splashed all over it. Orihime let out a large breath she didn't even know she had.

Each of them widened their eyes; their eyes were filled with frustration, though some were prostration. Their hands were clenched tightly around their weapons as they gripped their sheaths, lashing their weapons out. Despite this, some of them had their weapons out and were already focussed.

Another smash occurred, rapidly, everyone raced away from the barrier like lightning. Each of them darted around the ominous cavern, flinging themselves around the boss in an attempt to confuse it. Bringing themselves together, they stuck to each other like glue. The vampires, Suguha and Uryu departed the group in a flash, Suguha going left; Uryu going right.

The lightning golem roared. It's yelling was loud like a thousand enraged lions. Though enraged, it was puzzled. The monstrous beast did not know which of its prey it should attack! The thought leaving its head, the golem plunged its arm into the ground. It then lifted up a colossal rock before splitting it into thousands of sharp shards. With force, the fiend sprayed the shards, flying everywhere! Each of the opposition had evaded away, though only a few were scratched with crimson seeping out of the shallow cut. The aforementioned few grimaced in agony, though they managed to keep their balance when landing from their evasion.

The two vampires held up their longbows. Arrows of green and blue were sprayed along, as the two continued to move. The golem's head was spinning – literally. It couldn't keep up! Due to this situation, the boss was exacerbated – screeching out a tumultuous sound with lightning zapping furiously in all directions. The rock monster could feel the weak patting of the players' arrows beating against its back, sides and head. All of which it tried to protect at once. The sound of the magical arrows splashing against it reverberated through the air.

A ferocious roar emitted from Kirito! Exasperatingly, he yelled out an incantation. All of a sudden, he was engulfed by an enormous crimson beam that flowed up precipitately. It grew larger and larger, the shadow of Kirito's body inside seemed to be evaporating due to the blinding beam. It was intense! When it died down a split-second later, he emerged from the dust, a gigantic sword in his hand. It glowed an immense red with black flames. The aura around the said sword was terrifying. Two-handed, the demon gripped the sword, heaving it up and holding it high in the air where the blade shone and spread its majestic aura around. The sword itself was legendary. The hilt was twisted around, perfect grip for a rampage. The razor-sharp blade was intimidating. A mysterious skull where the hilt and blade met had glowing, green, apocalyptic eyes. Grinning psychotically, he nodded to Ichigo, Chad, Rin, Yukio, Rukia and Orihime who nodded back in return. After the short gesture, he started to run towards the boss to take advantage of the sudden distraction.

The spell caster, Orihime, stood back muttering words which summoned small beasts. One of them seemed to be a huge bat that scorching hot magma leaking out of its mouth. The other one was a snake. The snake had extra long teeth with venom dripping from them. It looked like its venom could destroy anything which stood in its way. Ichigo took a step back as he crouched down slightly in order to gain focus and power. The werewolf then leaped upwards, slashing the air frenziedly. So much so that it kept him staying perfectly in the air, though wavering. Large silver-coloured winds emanated from the claws, savagely devastated the enemy. Rukia, simultaneously, held her silver-sword high in the air. It glowed a forest green before turning into twin-blades, racing alongside Kirito.

* * *

As they finally unleashed their extirpative attacks, each of them heard the destructive creature bellow in pain. Lightning erupted like a volcano from it as each of them leaped backwards. All of a sudden, a destructive beam of light came flying out from where the monster was, its last attempts of killing the party was placed into one bolt of lightning. Although no one had seen this apart from the demon Rin. The bolt of lightning headed straight towards Suguha, an innocent girl. Falling down, the creature laughed, it noticed one of the demons had seen its attacks, and his flailing around.

Instinctively, Rin dashed towards Suguha! Pushing her out of the way as time seemed to slow down. The mass of electric was only inches away. As time sped up, Rin was forced back, Suguha and the others' eyes were dilated. Their mouths were wide open and horror had filled the atmosphere. The ominous aura from Kirito's sword vanished.

"RIN!" Yukio cried out as he rushed over towards his attacked brother. Laying on the floor, he groaned in torment. The calamitous impact managed to knock him unconscious. The health of the victim was disappearing quickly, "don't die on me, Rin!" Yukio continued as tears crawled down his cheeks.

The red bar above Rin's head stopped. '1/2400' It read. Yukio stared up at the health bar, his face lit up like a bulb. He was alive! He had made it! "Rin!" He wailed out.

Stirring slightly, eyes fluttering open, the demon let out a pathetic chuckle. "It's... it's just a–"

"No!" Kirito yelped out, causing all eyes to land on him. "It's not just a game, don't say that! This is a reality to us, haven't you noticed you can't log out?! If you die here, then you're completely dead!"

"Wha–"

"We've all killed many people in this game; we're all as guilty. I've played a game like this before. Sword Art Online..."

"K-Kirito," Asuna said, trying to calm him down.

"It's not going to help us all if you just blow it over as a game. We're all trapped here..."

* * *

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